Dayparting - Dayparts On Television

Dayparts On Television

On TV, like on radio, the day is divided into similar dayparts, although the times have been blurred somewhat. Breakfast television programs air between 7-10 am; on network television, these are usually long-form news programs featuring entertainment, light fare, and features aimed toward women. Until the 1970s or so, children's programming such as Captain Kangaroo aired in this time slot (since that time, however, the school day has come earlier, making such programs less viable). After breakfast comes daytime television, which, like the previous daypart, targets women (and also notably college students), particularly older retirees and the ever-shrinking base of stay-at-home moms and housewives; the soap opera, tabloid talk show, judge show and (much more rarely since the 1990s) the game show are popular genres in this daypart. A local noon newscast also airs during the noon hour on most stations as well (if so the case).

The later part of the daytime slot can sometimes be targeted for children and teenagers who come home from school. The U.S. networks Fox and The WB had children's blocks in the late 1990s, and even prior to that, CBS's Match Game exploited this audience to set ratings records in the 1970s. The United Kingdom's Channel 4 has also had consistent success with late-afternoon game shows; Countdown, airing daily since the network's launch, has been one of the network's popular programmes.

From 5-7 pm, newscasts are usually shown on most television stations. Local news is usually coupled with a half-hour network newscast and possibly a syndicated news program. Unlike morning news shows, these are more generally targeted programs and feature more hard news stories. Stations on minor networks usually air syndicated sitcom reruns or continue daytime programming during this daypart. Following the news, prime time begins with what is usually referred to as the "access period" (after former legislation in the United States which previously required networks to not show networked programming in that hour). In the United States, two game shows, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have dominated this time slot since the 1980s, and they usually compete with syndicated entertainment newsmagazines. Additional local newscasts have become increasingly popular in this time slot.

Prime time is the highest profile of television dayparts, from 7 or 8pm to 10 or 11pm, depending on the network and time zone. The highest rated programs on television often air during prime time, and almost all scripted programming (except soap operas) air during the prime time slots. Usually the main reason for the high profile of prime time television is due to the fact that many people who come home from work and school tend to watch TV more than any other activity. Following prime time, late newscasts often air, followed by late night television. Late-night shows are predominantly targeted toward younger male audiences (also college students and people who suffer insomnia are a large audience of late night TV) and feature a common format of a male host delivering a stand-up comedy routine, several guests, and a house band. After the late night shows, programming varies; this time slot between approximately 2am and 6am is known as the "graveyard slot" due to the extremely low numbers of viewers. Some stations may sign-off for the night, air infomercials, or air reruns of other programming. In some countries, programming aimed at adult audiences may also air during the late night hours, such as softcore pornography (in the United States, a handful of cable television channels such as Cinemax and HDNet have used this practice, but this is forbidden on American broadcast television).

In North America, Friday nights are often considered the "death slot", due to the concept that many shows scheduled on or moved to Friday nights would not last long before cancellation due to low ratings. Some shows have achieved success on Fridays even with the notion of the death slot. Other "death slots" include Saturday nights, the 12:00 noon and 4:00 p.m. weekday time slots (at least during the 1980s; both time slots have since been abandoned by all networks and given to local news or syndication), and the time slot or slots immediately opposite popular shows such as American Idol or the Super Bowl (see also Super Bowl counterprogramming). The phenomenon of fewer viewers on Friday and Saturday is in part because most people (particularly younger viewers that advertisers seek) are usually not home to watch TV on Friday and Saturday nights, and as a result, programs that air during this time are usually low rated. However, some cable channels aimed at teen or pre-teen audiences, such as Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, have been successful with original programs that they commonly air in the perceived Friday and Saturday night death slots; Nickelodeon in particular, has aired first-run programs in Saturday primetime since 1992 with the creation of the SNICK block (later renamed TEENick from 2004 to 2009).

Weekends have a slightly different setup than weekdays. On Saturdays, morning shows share time with the Saturday morning cartoon, where the networks usually fulfill federally-mandated regulations in some countries requiring the airing of educational or children's shows (such as in the United States, where at least 3 hours of this programming must air weekly across all television stations). Weekend afternoons (both Saturday and Sunday) often feature sporting events of varying degrees. During the fall, ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC all broadcast football (all air college football; all but ABC air NFL football as well), NBA and college basketball occurs on ABC and CBS during the winter and spring. Golf (all networks except FOX), auto racing (ABC and FOX for NASCAR, though other networks sometimes air open-wheel circuits) and baseball (FOX) occur during the summer; in addition, sports anthology series such as the CBS Sports Spectacular, Canada's CBC Sports Saturday and ABC's Wide World of Sports broadcast a broad variety of lesser-known sports. Most stations also find time when sports is not airing to air large blocks of infomercials during this time slot. Cable stations and some broadcast stations frequently air feature films during the weekend afternoons.

Prime time programming on Saturday nights vary by country. In Europe, Saturday night prime time is usually devoted to entertainment programming such as reality talent shows such as The X Factor on ITV and Strictly Come Dancing on BBC in the United Kingdom or drama television shows such as Doctor Who on BBC and Primeval on ITV. In North America, with the exception of Univision's Sabado Gigante, not many new programs air on Saturday nights, focusing more on movies, reruns, and sports. In Canada, the CBC historically airs Saturday night NHL hockey nationally under the title Hockey Night in Canada, dating back to the early days of radio; other Canadian networks use the Saturday night slot to meet Canadian content quotas (a practice pejoratively known as the "beaver hour"). The U.S.-based Fox network established a permanent sports block on Saturday night in 2012, carrying a range of sports including college football, NASCAR and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (this block displaced Fox's long-running reality series COPS from its time slot of over two decades); ABC carries Saturday Night Football (college football) during the fall, then switches to movies for the rest of the year.

In the US, late night programming on Saturday features one prominent sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live, while other stations carry syndicated reruns. Sunday mornings, often known as the graveyard slot (particularly very early on Sunday morning) feature more morning shows, public affairs programming designed for very small audiences, more infomercials, televangelism, and a series of influential political interview programs known as the Sunday morning talk shows. Sunday evening is generally treated as a regular weeknight, with popular prime time programs airing. No network programming currently airs in the Sunday late night slot.

In the United States, dayparting is by far the most common among the Big Three television networks, all three of which continue to produce programming for a wide array of audiences (a programming strategy known as full service). This is also generally true of other countries where the major terrestrial broadcasters have more general audiences. Cable and satellite channels, most of which cater to smaller niche audiences, generally use much simpler programming strategies: infomercials in the morning, reruns (often in block or marathon format) in the daytime, and feature programming in prime time, replayed in late night.